Forums > Social Chat > An interesting spinning tune...
Login/Join to ParticipateHOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
So, as I've hinted, I've recently discovered classical music. My favorite composer is Beethoven so far.
Now, the thing about classical music in general is that it is somewhat unpredictable in that it likes to change volume and tempo with little warning and there can be long periods where there is no discernable beat whatsoever. That's why the club music genres (trance, psytrance, house, techno, and yes, even D&B/jungle) are good for spinning.
However, I think I just found a piece that would be good for spinning. In fact, I know it's good for spinning because I spun to it with my sock poi just a couple of minutes ago:
The Third Movement of Beethoven's 1st Symphony is a lovely little allegro that has a consistent, syncopated beat and very few quiet spots. It also uses a fair number of major key chords, so it sounds up-beat and pleasant (as opposed to his 5th, which is impressive, but sounds like...well...like the invasion of Normandy). Oh, and depending on the recording you have, it's about 4-5 minutes long, so it's a perfect length.
It lends itself nicely to the butterfly series of moves, although I tried some weave moves with it and that worked well.
Does anyone else have some recommendations of classical pieces that are good for spinning?
Someone is undoubtedly going to recommend "O Fortuna" from Carl Orff's "Carmena Burana." It's got a nice beat and it sounds very impressive, yes, but it also sounds as if the Gates of Hell just busted open without warning.
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
playing the days away
7,263 posts
Location: The Middle lands, United Kingdom
You probably won't like this lightnening but i gotta say clare De Lune by Debussy is FAB for spinning to.....quiet...soft....gentle...then rising..faster....then chilling out again. Up down and turn it all around!
I think I enjoy it most cuz of the constantly changing tempo that makes the dancing far more enjoyable and feel I get into it more and more. As I know it by heart it's incredibly easy to go with each change. It's one of the songs that ends way before you're ready too tho!
Apart from that I have very little classical experience, although I love Spring from the four seasons I don't have it to spin to.
Let's relight this forum 
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
I just tried your suggestion of Vivaldi's "La Primavera" and my recording is a bit too slow. Can't get the poi to go that slowly. However, if there were a faster recording, it might be quite nice. Actually, a very dedicated and very patient fire troupe might even be able to choreograph a little poi ballet to it.
As far as Claire De Lune goes... We'll have to agree to disagree on that.
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Your Face!
1,173 posts
Location: el paso, tx, USA
I know that the baroqe"i think it's spelled that way?"Piece "tocata el fuge" is good to spin to and so is "hall of the mountain king".
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!
-Albert Einstein-
Peanut butter... It fills the cracks of the soul! -Paul Blart-
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Bach's Tocatta and Fugue in D Major (Major or Minor? I forget...) is a wonderful tune...except I feel like the beat goes all over the place. Might be good for staffing, though, because staffers have more freedom to vary the pace without having to worry about gravity taking over if they go too slowly.
That's the problem with poi: go to slowly and the poi fall.
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Your Face!
1,173 posts
Location: el paso, tx, USA
True.
Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!
-Albert Einstein-
Peanut butter... It fills the cracks of the soul! -Paul Blart-
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Darn it, VT...now I'm going to have to go outside in the freezing cold and try staffing to Bach's Tocatta and Fugue.
I'll have you know I'm holding you personally responsible if my fingers fall off due to frostbite!
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
Are we there yet?
1,897 posts
Location: australia
how about the 1812 overture
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
Oooh! Nice one! How about the William Tell Overture?
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
I just discovered that the the second movement to Beethoven's 9th just happens to start off at 125 BPM and stays there for at least 5 minutes or so.
The beat for the beginning of the movement so consistent that a very brave DJ could maybe spin a couple of minutes at a rave and get away with it. I'd love to see the reaction to that stunt.
Beethove, apparently, first invented trance. Who knew?
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
veteran
1,389 posts
Location: Guelph, ON, Canada
that's great Lightning... Now I gotta go dig up all my classical records and cds, and listen to them!!! Probably good stuff to do while midterms going on ^_^I can't think of anything I've played that's classical and upbeat. Maybe humouresque. but I forget who that's by.. then again, it's just a few minutes, not long at all... ^.^
~ Bobo
wie weit, wie weit noch?
fragst mich, wo wir gewesen sind...
du fehlst hier
Llamas are larger than frogs.
319 posts
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
AAAAAARRRGHHH! I hate that song! Well, I don't hate it, but years of playing it for Suzuki really biased me against it. It doesn't really strike me as a good poi song, though.
"I know a good deal more than a boiled carrot."
"Fire!" "Where?" "Nowhere, I was just illustrating the misuse of free speech."
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
I can only imagine that it would be fun to be in an orchestry playing that piece. It's so impressive.
-Mike
Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella
A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura
veteran
1,389 posts
Location: Guelph, ON, Canada
Quote:
AAAAAARRRGHHH! I hate that song! Well, I don't hate it, but years of playing it for Suzuki really biased me against it. It doesn't really strike me as a good poi song, though.
OOORRRGH!! I'm in the Suzuki program right now, and have been for six years. Violin for me, but started viola in the summer, and the books are messed up, like.. a song in book three violin is book two viola. It's mad, it's crazy, it's Suzuki.
I just do Suzuki with viola though, and I'm currently studying fiddling. Whoo!! *belts out little jig*
~ Bobo
wie weit, wie weit noch?
fragst mich, wo wir gewesen sind...
du fehlst hier
spiny norman
314 posts
Location: Cincinnati,damn it, USA
i love fiddling! i love to go faster and faster until it dosent even sound like music anymore, my family dosent like this much though, i did suzuki violin for a long time, im thinking about trying viola, if i do then me and three of my friends could be a poi trope and a quartet, yay, but could we do them both at once?
if you think that our kiss was all in the lips, come on you got it all wrong man, and if you think that our dance was all in the hips then, oh well, do the twist -The White Stripes
Llamas are larger than frogs.
319 posts
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
We can try, Lyra. Yeah, I played Suzuki cello for 6 years. I have to go huddle in a corner now whenever I hear "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Thank god i'ts over!
The books are v. screwed up- there are only 4 songs in bk.4, and like 20 in all the others. "I know a good deal more than a boiled carrot."
"Fire!" "Where?" "Nowhere, I was just illustrating the misuse of free speech."
Corporate Circus Arts Entertainer
3,989 posts
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
You guys, you are forgetting one of the best all-time classics for perfroming too.
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue!
Sure, it's a little unpredictavble in parts, but it's got htis awesome aria in the middle of it to get your breath back after the fast stuff, and then leads back slowly into th emain theme.
(If no-one knows the aria i'm talking about, just think of the old british airways add with all the coloured people making up faces and shapes from above).
Long live crazy jazz composers!
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Cinnamon Girl
191 posts
Location: Hfx, NS, Canada
I really like "Revolutionary" by Chopin, but keep in mind the first time I heard it was in a remix on Dance Dance Revolution, so that version is wicked for spinning, good drums, though a little short.
P*L*U*R
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